Foolish Cat March 18th, 2008

Barack Obama gave a very moving speech today on race relations in America, a speech that may turn out to be the silver lining in a controversy involving his long-time friend and spiritual adviser Jeremiah Wright, who was shown this past week saying hateful and anti-American passages during several sermons over the past seven years.

In my opinion, the success of Obama’s campaign has shown that the racial divide in America is perhaps not as big a deal as we’ve been led to believe. If it was, based strictly on population, Obama wouldn’t have a chance vs. McCain or Clinton.

However, the issue does remain; ninety percent of blacks in Mississippi didn’t vote for Obama because they like his health care policy.

So what of it?

Forever we have heard, and even today by Obama, that we should vote strictly on the issues; then, the powers that be, proceed to tell us exactly what the issues are (e.g. health care, Iraq, etc.). But who decides that? Why can’t race be an issue? Why can’t religion be an issue? Or sex? Or whatever? Who are the candidates to tell us what is an issue and what isn’t? Who is the media to tell us?

I agree that we shouldn’t factor in someone’s race or sex in our voting, but is it OK to factor in the candidates opinions about other races and sexes? Every pundit and analyst, with their own set of issues and agendas, is attempting to tell us what the Rev. Wright issue should or shouldn’t mean to us. It’s ridiculous. We are adults, with the same ability to see and hear as they are. It means to us what it means. For some that will be nothing and for others it will change their minds. It isn’t wrong or right, it is a difference of equally valid opinion.

And why does someone else’s issue have to be mine and vice versa? Is it a sin for a retired Federal employee with great benefits and no kids not to put health care and education at the top of his issues list? If a twenty-year old college student doesn’t make where the candidates stand on prescription drugs for seniors of vital importance, is she shallow and ignorant?

The fact is, at the end of the day, most of us will vote for the person we think will personally benefit us and our families the most.
And after all the speeches are given that promise us everything, we have to decide who that is from the gut. This we tend to do by determining who is most likely, on a human level, to associate and sympathize with our causes. Does a woman voting for Hillary simply because she is a woman surprise us? How about a Vietnam veteran voting for McCain? Of course not. And people using race as a voting issue shouldn’t surprise us either. So let us recognize race as the issue that it is, factor it as much or as little as we like, and blunder on.

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